Dear Commons Community,
There has been so much going on during the past couple of days that it is difficult to select what will be of most interest.
First, Amazon.com, announced on Thursday that as of April 1st e-book sales for its Kindle, have outnumbered hard-cover and print books. For every 100 print (hard cover or paperback) book sold, Amazon sells 105 Kindle books. The fact is that reading in general and hence the buying of books is up. E-book sales in March were $69 million, an increase of 146 percent from the year before, the Association of American Publishers said Thursday. Sales of adult hardcover books grew 6 percent while paperback sales decreased nearly 8 percent. Keep-on reading!
Second, the NY Times is reporting that responding to a lawsuit seeking to prevent New York City from closing 22 poorly performing schools, Mayor Michael Bloomberg made a comment on Friday about parents of children in those schools that immediately prompted outrage.
“Unfortunately there are some parents who just come from — they never had a formal education, and they don’t understand the value of education” Mr. Bloomberg said during his weekly radio appearance.
The schools in question are filled with poor, minority and immigrant students, including many who are homeless. Zakiyah Ansari, a parent organizer with the Alliance for Quality Education, an umbrella organization that is also part of the suit, said she was insulted.
“How dare he say we don’t know what we’re talking about!” said Ms. Ansari, whose organization represents more than 200 parent, teacher and student groups. “How dare he assume that because we’re poor or black or Latino or homeless or all of the above, that we’re uneducated, that we don’t know what’s best for our kids!” I think a Bloomberg Mea Culpa is in order.
Lastly, the world will end today! Rapture!
Tony
